http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/15/BA6H1B4L3P.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0ZroaFJ0lA lawsuit accusing a Bay Area flight-planning company of aiding an alleged CIA program of kidnapping and torturing terror suspects threatens national security and is too sensitive to discuss fully in a public courtroom, an Obama administration attorney argued Tuesday.
"The case cannot proceed without getting into state secrets," Justice Department lawyer Douglas Letter told an 11-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Several judges noted that most of the essential facts of the case have been widely aired - the existence of the "extraordinary rendition" program under President George W. Bush, the five plaintiffs' accounts of their abduction and torture, and the alleged participation by Jeppesen Dataplan of San Jose - and asked why the case is too sensitive for the courts to hear.
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"The CIA has engaged in kidnapping and torture and declared its crimes state secrets," he said. Dismissing the suit without deciding whether the plaintiffs' rights were violated, he said, would be "dangerous to democracy."
Extraordinary rendition is the practice of abducting suspected terrorists and taking them to foreign countries or CIA prisons for interrogation.
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CIA's air provider
Jeppesen, a Boeing Co. subsidiary, was described in a 2007 Council of Europe report as the CIA's aviation services provider. In a court declaration in the current suit, a company employee quotes a director as telling staff members in 2006 that Jeppesen handled the CIA's "torture flights."
The five plaintiffs accuse Jeppesen of arranging their flights to foreign or CIA prisons, where they say they were interrogated brutally. Two of the men are still being held in Egypt and Morocco, and the others have been released without U.S. charges.
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Mixed reaction
The government's argument Tuesday - that allowing the case to proceed would risk disclosure of secrets about interrogation methods and CIA operations - drew a mixed reaction from the court.
Judge Michael Hawkins, author of the April decision, noted that the Obama administration plans to try the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in open court and has spoken publicly about interrogation abuses.
But Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said the administration, not the courts, must decide crucial questions of secrecy.
"I understand you think it's not fair, but so what?" he told Wizner.
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TORTURE is our albatross
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